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Monthly Archives: October 2011

DENVER—The United Parcel Service likely retaliated against an injured worker when it blocked him from returning to work with lifting restrictions, according to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

However, the court said a $2 million judgment against UPS in the case was “excessive,” because the company’s actions only caused monetary harm to Keith Jones, a former UPS package car driver and plaintiff in Jones vs. United Parcel Service Inc.

Mr. Jones of Kansas City, Kan., claimed that UPS violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when the company said a lifting restriction, caused by a 2003 shoulder injury, prevented him from working any job within UPS, court filings show. A company-appointed doctor restricted him from lifting more than 20 pounds overhead after his injury, though UPS carriers are routinely required to lift packages weighing up to 70 pounds overhead.

Two doctors who evaluated Mr. Jones in 2004 said he was later able to lift 70 pounds. But they testified that discussions with Monica Sloan, a UPS occupational health manager, prevented them from removing his lifting restrictions.

Subsequently, Mr. Jones was unable to return to UPS. He argued that the company retaliated against him for filing a workers compensation claim for his shoulder injury.

In a 2-1 ruling on Monday, the appeals court said Mr. Jones’ retaliation claim is valid because Ms. Sloan, “on multiple occasions, intentionally interfered with the doctors’ medical evaluations in an attempt to prevent Jones from returning to work.” The court also ruled that punitive damages were appropriate in light of Ms. Sloan’s actions.

However, it said a $2 million jury award is excessive because Ms. Sloan “did not act with disregard for the health and safety of others,” and that her “conduct was not so reprehensible” to warrant such a large award. A $630,300 jury award to Mr. Jones for actual damages in the UPS case was affirmed by the appeals court.

Mr. Jones can choose to pursue a new jury trial in order to determine punitive damages in the case, the appeal court said.

UPS 3Q Profit Rises 5 Percent, Keeps Year View

By SAMANTHA BOMKAMP AP Transportation Writer

NEW YORK October 25, 2011 (AP)

UPS says the global economy is leveling off, as growth in Europe and some U.S. units make up for sluggishness in the once-hot market for Asian imports. The world’s largest package delivery company said Tuesday that improvement in its supply chain and freight business in the U.S. helped it report a 5 percent improvement in third-quarter earnings. It also maintained its earnings forecast for the full year, which bakes in an expectation that the U.S. economy will continue to grow at a very slow pace. UPS still expects to earn between $4.15 and $4.40 per share this year. Analysts polled by FactSet Research currently predict $4.23 per share. In the three months ended Sept. 30, the Atlanta company earned $1.04 billion, or $1.06 per share, compared with $991 million, or 99 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 8 percent to $13.17 billion. Sales in its freight unit — which hauls heavier items like refrigerators and other appliances — rose 5 percent. U.S. domestic package revenue was up 7 percent. Despite a slowdown in shipments of iPods, computers and other expensive gadgets from China, international package revenue still rose 14 percent. Strength in Europe, despite continued debt worries there, held up UPS’ international unit.

AP

In this Oct. 19, 2011 photo, a UPS driver loads packages for delivery, in Scottsdale, Ariz. UPS Inc. is holding onto its earnings expectations for the full year after reporting a 5 percent increase in third-quarter earnings Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Matt York)

The most dramatic slowdown in UPS’ business from last year was in shipments from China to the U.S. Americans pulled back on spending this summer amid debt talk uncertainty in Washington and growing fears of another recession. UPS said volume fell between Asia and U.S. in the third quarter; a year ago, it leaped by 47 percent. To counteract the slowdown there, UPS is using fewer planes to cut costs. But in a conference call with analysts, UPS Chief Financial Officer Kurt Kuehn said the cuts weren’t enough to account for the steep decline in demand. If American consumers pull back further, the company said it will make more adjustments, mostly by redeploying planes to parts of the world where business is better. Higher prices and fuel surcharges helped drive results in the third quarter. Operating profit in its international segment fell 2.4 percent. Operating profit also fell at the company’s core U.S. package business, but rose 10 percent for supply chain and freight. The supply chain unit provides a number of services for companies including help with warehouse and shipping efficiency. It’s growing as more companies look for ways to reduce costs. United Parcel Service Inc. made more money from its fuel surcharge plan in the quarter as oil prices fell rapidly. In times when prices are falling quickly, UPS — which charges customers a surcharge based on the price of oil — benefits because the charge lags actual prices by about two months. UPS shares fell $1.52, or 2.1 percent, to close at $69.35 Tuesday.

Warren Buffett – How to Fix Congress

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the bestquotes about the debt ceiling: “I could end the deficit in 5 minutes,” he told CNBC. “You just pass a lawthat says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, allsitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only3 months &8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. Thatwas in 1971…before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or lessto become the law of the land…all because of public pressure. Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimumof twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to dolikewise. In three days, most people in The United States of America will have themessage. This is one idea that really should be passed around. Congressional Reform Act of 2011 1. No Tenure / No Pension.A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay whenthey are out of office. 2. Congress (past, present &future) participates in Social Security.All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Securitysystem immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system,and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used forany other purpose. 3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americansdo. 4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional paywill rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in thesame health care system as the American people. 6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the Americanpeople. 7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congressis an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizenlegislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back towork. If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only takethree days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe itis time. THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation’s largest private employer, is scaling back the eligibility for health care coverage offered to future part-timers and dramatically raising premiums for many of its full-time workers. Industry observers say the changes could have implications for millions of other workers, as more companies on the fence could replicate its moves. The discounter, which employs more than 1.4 million workers, said the changes were forced by rising health care costs. All future part-time employees working less than 24 hours a week, on average, will not be covered under the plan, starting next year. Premiums will rise for many existing workers, and the company will reduce by half the amount it contributes for each worker to help pay for health care expenses not covered under their plan. Tobacco users will be particularly hit hard, seeing premiums more than double, compared with increases of as much as 41 percent for singles, according to Making Change at Wal-Mart, a group backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has been pressuring Wal-Mart on worker rights. “Health care costs are continuing to go up faster than anyone would like,” said Greg Rossiter, a Wal-Mart spokesman. “It is a difficult decision to raise rates. But we are striking a balance between managing costs and providing quality care and coverage.” He emphasized that Wal-Mart’s health care coverage remains “top tier” among its peers. A number of companies have been looking for ways to cut health care costs and have been shifting more of the burden to their employees. The costs of employer-sponsored health insurance surged 9 percent this year, according to a report released last month by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. But Drew Altman, president and chief executive of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said that a big package of cuts from one company is unusual. “While we do see increases in cost sharing, this is unusual and is outside the bounds,” Altman said. “I don’t think this will have a major impact on those who tend to do a little bit of everything to control costs, but it could provide more cover for other employers who are looking to move in that direction.” Only about 42 percent of overall companies offer health care coverage to part-timers, according to Kaiser.

Rich Man’s Revolutionary

By Michael Tomasky | The Daily Beast – 39 mins ago

V.I. Lenin: Now there was a fellow who thought ahead. He had five-year plans and seven-year plans by the bushel-full, and he never lost faith in the dialectic. Marx and science had provided the proof that it would all work out. We need that kind of constancy and can-do spirit in America today, I think you’d agree. Well, friends, we have it—in Herman Cain. His now-famous 9-9-9 tax plan is certainly as radical as anything Lenin ever proposed, although in the opposite direction. And more than that, it turns out to be (like communism itself) merely a stage in man’s development on the way to nirvana. Maybe I have been underestimating him.Cain now actually leads the field in some new polls. One seems like a dodgy poll, in that it shows Newt Gingrich at 15 percent, which I doubt is accurate even among his extended family. But another is Wall Street Journal/NBC. There’s no denying—Cain is riding the wave. He’s a nice feel-good candidate, an indulgence, an escape hatch from the disappointment of Rick Perry and the tedious (seeming) inevitably of Mitt Romney—and finally, a way for Tea Partiers to say, “See? We’re not racists!” In all those senses he has a lot going for him. But now his plan has started to face serious scrutiny, and that scrutiny is revealing that it’s undoubtedly the most radical shift of wealth that a presidential candidate has proposed in this country since (speaking of communists) Gus Hall. Bruce Bartlett, the esteemed economist who is an apostate conservative but also not a liberal, recently sliced the plan to pieces. “A distributional monstrosity,” Bartlett wrote, under which “the poor would pay more while the rich would have their taxes cut, with no guarantee that economic growth will increase and good reason to believe that the budget deficit will increase.” We’ll get to a few details on that in a moment. But what’s really startling about Bartlett’s report—and this is what got me thinking about Comrade Ulyanov—is that the 9-9-9 plan is not his goal. No—it’s merely Phase 2 in the melting away of the state! Phase 1 would reduce business and personal income taxes to a high rate of 25 percent. That sounds nice. But you have to know about concepts like marginalization to realize that 96 percent of all taxpayers don’t even make enough to pay a single dollar in income taxes at rates above 25 percent. So in other words, Cain cuts taxes—for the top 4 percent. And for the top 1 percent—especially the top 0.2 percent (millionaires)—he cuts them radically. The same applies to Cain’s proposals for business taxes. Cain’s Phase 1, the way it’s structured, would cut taxes mostly for the largest corporations and not help small- and medium-size concerns that are 92 percent of businesses. And he’d abolish all taxes on capital gains. Two-thirds of all capital gains are reported by taxpayers with yearly incomes above $1 million. Getting the picture? A massive Christmas gift for the well-off. And remember—that’s just Phase 1! The 9-9-9 plan is Phase 2, calling for a 9 percent rate for business taxes, personal income taxes, and a national sales tax. First of all, the numbers don’t add up. Either government services will be savaged or we’ll run an unthinkable deficit. And again, middle- and lower-income people will be crushed, even worse than under Phase 1. Most poor and many working-class people pay no income tax (they do, of course, pay payroll taxes). But under Cain’s plan, they would pay. And the wealthy would pay far, far, far less than they do now. Far, far, far less than George W. Bush ever dreamed of making them pay. Cain would say: But I get rid of payroll taxes. Fine. That saves an average taxpayer about $3,000. But it also means there is no Social Security, since that is how Social Security is financed. So the taxpayer would probably plow most of that back into a private retirement account anyway. Then, she pays a 9 percent tax on everything she buys. What people buy, from food to entertainment to what have you, usually amounts to 60 percent or more of their income. Ah, but if you think that’s a lot of sales tax, just wait till you hear about Phase 3. This last phase ends 9-9-9 and imposes a (get this name) “Fair Tax”—a 30 percent sales tax on all goods and services. The theory here is that prices will fall. Another part of the theory, which proponents don’t mention quite as often, is that wages would fall, too. And all that’s on top of spending $130 for a $100 pair of sneakers for your teenager, or $780 for a $600 television. It’s no wonder that Cain’s chief economist, Rich Lowrie, isn’t even an economist but a “wealth management” consultant. The Cain plan is entirely about wealth management. And GOP primary voters love them some wealth management. This plan will surely help Cain in primary season. So I do have to hand it to him. He understands the spirit of the age in some way. Be as radical and simplistic and unrealistic as possible, and lustily feed the haves’ hatred of the have nots. And be black while doing it—better still! And feed America pizza too! It’s a good thing for the world Lenin was never quite this clever.